The Corona pandemic as we know it is over, Kan 11 News reported Monday night. The Corona Czar, Professor Salman Zarka, informed Israel’s four HMOs that as of January 18, 2023, the Home Front Command’s Corona testing facilities will be shut down, and Corona tests will only be administered by the HMOs and will be their responsibility.
By January 31, 2023, the coronavirus will be declared just another viral disease, similar to the flu. The emergency control center will be shut down, and as of that day, there will no longer be a need to isolate Corona patients.
The Health Ministry called on the public, especially individuals age 65 and older and people in risk groups, to get vaccinated against the flu. The flu virus can cause serious illnesses, such as pneumonia and other respiratory complications, inflammation of the heart muscle, and even death. It is recommended to get vaccinated every year since every year a new, mutated flu virus appears. The vaccine this year (and every year) is produced based on the World Health Organization’s assessments.
Meanwhile, the presence of the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) was detected in Israel. It is a common, contagious virus that causes infections of the respiratory tract. RSV is the single most common cause of respiratory hospitalization in infants, and reinfection remains common in later life and all age groups. Infection rates are typically higher during the cold winter months, causing bronchiolitis in infants, common colds in adults, and more serious respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia in the elderly and immunocompromised. RSV can cause outbreaks both in the community and in hospital settings.
Finally, a new study from Stanford University suggests that Corona-related stressors have physically altered adolescents’ brains, making their brain structures appear several years older than the brains of comparable peers before the pandemic. The study was published on Dec. 1, 2022, in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science (Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Brain Maturation in Adolescents: Implications for Analyzing Longitudinal Data).
So, not really out of the woods yet. Not even close.
